I can see the Isle of Man!

This week will be a lot of Lee updates and a little bit of cycling at the end. More than anything though it's mostly about a great week with great friends.

I missed a blog last week because in all honesty not much happened. Lee did have a 24hr heart monitor but we haven't even had the results yet. I did some coaching and some cycling, walked the dogs and did a couple of runs. All standard fare. At work we had our virtual wellbeing festival. This was fantastic with some  brilliant keynote speakers. Chris Packham was great on Monday but for me the absolute highlight was Gareth Thomas.

The rest of the week was about getting ready to go away. Lee had a trip to see her hairdresser Brad at Queens in Rothwell. She is relieved that her hair loss has slowed a bit!

On Monday we headed off to the Lake District for a week at Moorside Glamping pods. We took our dogs, Bruce and Charity. Joining us were our good friends Vicky and Martin plus their dog Fergus. Usually when we go away together the kids all come too. However in a WiFi free, intermittent 4G signal area, we were very glad to be teenager free! We met them in a pub on the way for the first of many good meals with a nice pint

We arrived after a scenic trip over the fells to our homes for the week. These are just perfect. Set on the side of the moor with mountains behind and the coast in front. The weather was so fine we could see the Isle of Man...more on that in a bit!

Lee took the opportunity to have her daily Nanna nap whilst Vicky, Martin, the dogs and I tested the quoted 15 minute walk to the nearest pub. We wanted to see if this was suitable for Lee and quickly discovered...no, no it wasn't. It was rough and hilly and frankly 15 minutes would've been a challenge for a spritely fell runner. That it took us 40 minutes to get to the pub and 20 to get back isn't the funniest part of the story. Firstly Vicky took us down a path into a bog and optimistically kept going. 

As we doubled back we had to negotiate a cattle grid. Bruce helpfully dropped his ball down it, I retrieved the ball as Martin made sure he captured the moment on camera! Charity offered helpful advice. 

Once the ball was retrieved...for the retrievers, we negotiated the cattle grid. Bruce decided to do it in one jump which was bad news for Vicky holding on to his lead! Luckily she stayed upright and thoughts went to a safer way to cross cattle grids! It was on the way back that the three wise people realised the gate next to the grid could be opened!!!

Then Martin exclaimed he could see the Isle of Man even more clearly just as he promptly stepped in a massive cowpat. He also miraculously stayed on his feet! At this point Vicky and I lost it. I don't think I've laughed as much in my life. The next sight of an amorous bull servicing his hephers was just par for the course! Thankfully the pub wasn't much further and we calmed down over a pint!

With Lee's mobility still impaired we decided the next day to go on a train ride. This lovely little train is known as the Ratty and sets off from Ravenglass, just 6 miles from the pods. Martin and Lee booked the tickets and we got a tiny carriage for four people. Lee was asked if we had big dogs and fearing we wouldn't get on, she replied: "no not really!"

Okay so I think they might actually class Bruce and Charity as big dogs. On the first attempt to fit in, Charity dived straight under the seat and stayed there. Bruce jumped straight back out again! Yep the labrador had the most sense here. Somehow we wedged in and set off. Meanwhile the carriage next door was empty!!!

Lee managed a ten minute walk to the village of Boot for an ice cream and then we let her have a rest as we went for a wander. Then we doubled back round to Lee and of course went to the pub! I can heartily recommend the Boot Inn!

On the way back to Ravenglass they allowed us to use the empty carriage and everyone was a bit more comfy! 

Having taken a train ride on Tuesday we decided on a boat ride for Wednesday! So we took a drive to a sunny Coniston water. We easily fitted on the boat and it was a lovely little trip!

From the boat you get to see Beatrix Potter's House, the setting for Swallows and Amazons and the stunning mountains that surround the lake. The best known being the Old Man of Coniston, one of the many fells I've walked with my Dad.

This is also the scene of Donald Campbell's ill fated speed record attempt in Bluebird.

After that...of course we went to the pub! Another great meal and a pint of Bluebird! Lee made the ten minute walk to the pub and started a wander round the shops before it all caught up with her again. It really brings it home when you see her exhausted so easily. Back to the pod for another Nanna nap!

On Thursday I wanted to take everyone to Wasdale, the most Lake District part of the Lake District. If you're wondering what Lee is laughing about she had just said she can't see a pub! Erm..this one?

Wssdale claims to have England's highest mountain, deepest Lake and smallest church. Dad brought me here many times and I still love the place! As with previous days, Lee read her kindle on a bench and we went for a wander. She also managed to meet a lady who helps people post covid and now has another contact to help her recovery. After that of course we went to the pub! 

It must be said every pub we frequented did good quality food and nice beer at a reasonable price. The glamping pods are also great value for money. The weather ignored the poor forecast and was great throughout. 

In the afternoon we headed to the nearby beach. It was nice for a few minutes and then we realised that Lee had probably done too much for the day. Martin and I had to help her back to the car. She was okay again after a few minutes sitting down, it seems the virus isn't done with us yet! However we did have a nice last evening in the bods with yet more good food and drink!

On Friday morning Martin and I took the dogs for a last walk before we packed up to head home. This was a wonderful break and just what we all needed. Lee is disappointed she couldn't do more but I'm sure it will come! Oh and here...is the Isle of Man!

Okay now the cycling bit. I did take my cx with me and I even planned a 24 round trip to Hardknot Pass and back. However this trip wasn't about me so I just went out for a couple of short rides. Here's some pics from my rides.

Once back home I tried to fit my new cassette and chain to my road bike. Turns out I do need a longer rear hanger AND my goodness 4 attempts to fit the chain...what a numpty!

With all that needing fixing another day I went for a little spin on my mountain bike. It was quite interesting for a little local loop. A lovely touch with the air ambulance fundraiser and I'm sure that pig knows how much bacon and sausages I ate this week!

Today I did my usual parkrun duties before taking my MTB out again. This time I did Geddington Chase and back. That's always a good off road ride!

I'm hoping for a lot more cycling next week. However it really would be bad not to mention Mark Cavendish. I was able to watch both stage wins this week in the pod. Equaling anything by Eddy Merckx is phenomenal! He's also been pretty humble about it, praising his team AND pointing out that Marianne Vos has achieved something just as spectacular at the Giro! What a man!!! 

Well some sort of football match is about to start so...

Happy Pedalling 

Quiet week

It's been a quiet week after the excitement of Devon. So this week's blog will be short with the usual Lee update and the little bit of cycling I've done.

There's been no dramas for Lee this week. She is knackered though. It's no surprise after our weekend away. That heart has been messing about again with some high heart rates but no need for hospital. We are going for a cardiology appointment this week. Last night we had a nice evening with friends.

Due to our long weekend, I didn't coach this week. I've also felt tired and grumpy all week which I think is something to do with the emotional come down of the trip to Plymouth. So it wasn't until Saturday that I got back on a bike.

I left the house in no mood for a bike ride and 30 seconds of spinning downhill completely cured that morose condition. It always does!

This was a lovely route starting as usual at the swimming pool and heading out to Geddington and then via Great Oakley to Pipewell. There I was shown the smallest church that I've never noticed!

The church of St.Marys at Pipewell is officially Northamptonshire's smallest church and is there due to the monastic Abbey which used to be there. You can read all about in detail here www.british-history.ac.uk

The pictures don't show you that this was a soggy day. The sort of the day when you look out of the window and decide to stay at home. It wasn't too bad once you were out in it!

We had our banana 🍌 break in Gretton where Richard G was his usual gentleman self and took all the skins to the bin! The rest of the ride passed without incident. It was just what I needed to get back in the saddle.

Mark wins socks of the Day with these tiger stripe Bobby dazzlers.

After a Dartmoor-esque climb up the Brigstock bumps we decided against the coffee stop in Grafton. Everyone was soaked through and we didn't think they'd appreciate a group of soggy cyclists. So we split up. Four of us headed back home via Geddington during which soapy foam oozed from Scott's saddle. Not sure what was going on there! 

After a good night out I dragged my weary self to Parkrun duties. I was hoping to hide in a corner as a Marshall and got the opposite as a bar code scanner. This is about the busiest job at parkrun but also really rewarding. 

This weekend was full of great sport. The premiership rugby final was amazing. For cycling its the Tour de France 🇫🇷. There was also a good win in mountain biking for the very likable Evie Richards. Evie is well worth following on Instagram, not just for her cycling content but because she appears to be a splendid human being, full of the joys of life! In very local news  former cyclone Josh Brown took part in the http://cicleclassic.co.uk it sounds as though he didn't have much luck though. Better days will come Josh!

Happy Pedalling 

Devon is heaven but Dartmoor was Hellish at times!

This week is extra special as Lee and I took our long anticipated trip to Plymouth, met with great friends and I tackled the beast that is the Dartmoor Classic. 

For me this trip was so special. Firstly we didn't know if Lee would be well enough to make a long journey or have the energy to spend quality time with friends. That infection of a few weeks ago turned out to be food poisoning! It's a total mystery as we eat pretty much the same stuff yet none of the rest of us had any form of illness. It kind of shows the precarious position Lee's health is in! Anyway that has all cleared up and the Queen of Cakes felt fit enough to go to Devon.

Our links to this heavenly county are deep and varied. My Pap (Grandad,) was from Devon, not far from Plymouth. It was 2 years ago that we took a trip to his birth village as he died only a few months earlier at the grand Old age of 91. I still miss my Pap greatly but also realise the tremendous good fortune of getting to 48 years old before losing a maternal grandparent. My Nan is of course still going strong! 

Then we have our friends. We stay with Ged, James & Sean, the most splendid hosts. Our weekends with them are filled with laughter, good food and plenty of drink!!!

Lee and Ged used to work together in the Youth Offending Service and along with Sara they formed a trio of great friends. Sara lives across the bridge in Cornwall with her wife Kirsty so when we're down here all three are united! 

Here they are on the 2004 London to Brighton bike. Lee's first and last sportive!!! The picture is in Ged's toilet.

Then there's Nigel. He's a born and bred Plymouth boy who spent 14 years in Northampton. For some of that time we lived together in a glorious Men Behaving Badly kind of way. He's moved back down here and lives about 5 minutes away from Ged and James. Nigel and I were supposed to do the Dartmoor Classic together but he's injured himself! It was great to see him though.

It's just lovely down here and Lee has done very well. In her typical fashion she's apologised profusely for getting tired, or being slow or not helping out much! We've banned her from saying sorry and she now has to say "haberdashery," instead. I'm not sure what passers by make of someone saying haberdashery every couple of minutes but hey, it makes us laugh! Lee has ticked all her Devon boxes: cream tea, fish and chips, wander round the Barbican etc.

So with Lee looking okay I set out at 5am on Sunday morning for Newton Abbot and the start of the Dartmoor Classic. I was feeling strangely nervous before the start but made good time and was slightly early for the start!

If this was a club ride at home I wouldn't have started. The moor was covered in thick mist with visibility poor at low levels never mind up above. However my rules are different for organised events. You're surrounded by help so the risks are much reduced.

The Dartmoor Classic has 3 distances. 107 miles, 67 miles and 30 miles. Thankfully we choose the 67 miles Medio distance. That's nothing like my longest ride but its the 6230ft of climbing that make this tough. I felt I'd trained well for this but you can't fully replicate this sort of ride in Northamptonshire. Or can you? 

The ride above is the lockdown ride we all did solo instead of a club trip to the peaks. However this ride deliberately went up every hill available and is still 600ft less over a similar distance. The big difference is the length of the climbs. In 2019 I managed okay though.

This year the first hill was a struggle. Then for some reason my rear brake jammed on a descent. After 5 minutes of fiddling it released without me really understanding why and was okay after that. Then I went under the sign for the official King of the Mountains/Queen of the Mountains hill. This is an absolute beast amongst many hard hills and out of nowhere I just couldn't do it! 10 miles in and I was walking up a hill. I walked a bit, cycled as far as I could and walked a bit all the way to the top. Then I had to stop a few times to be sick!!! This has never happened to me before. I felt utterly embarrassed and was pleased that Nigel wasn't with me. I passed a sign that said Newton Abbot 7 miles and nearly took that turn. The mist was getting in my head and I really didn't like the descents without a clear view of the road.

I kept going though with the unglorified tactic of walking the hills. At 29 miles there is a bit where the route doubles back and this would have saved me about 4 miles. I was seriously tempted but a Marshall persuaded me it was only a couple more miles and I'd regret it if I didn't do the full route. So I set back off to great cheers from spectators. I pootled into Princetown and managed a can of coke and a piece of flapjack. That was weird too, I was struggling to eat! However that stop really helped. I set back off and my legs came back. I had a good chat with a fellow "downhill specialist," who told me there was no shame in walking when the hill gets too much. I passed the helpful Marshall and thanked him and the world felt good again. I was then passed by the funniest site. A bloke on a very cheap hybrid with a baguette in his front basket and a squash bottle in his bottle cage whipped past. The bloke himself looked fit as a butcher's dog. I can only think this is a sort of joke and suspect he has a fleet of better bikes for everyday use. I was still going well, I remembered from 2019 that I'd enjoyed this bit of the ride, its rolling moorland rather than horrific hills...then the hills returned. I was still going well though until CRAMP flipping cramp. That was the pattern for the next ten miles, ride until I cramped, walk until it eased. However as I passed 50 miles all my troubles and woes faded away, I knew I could do it now. After a very long hill there's a stunning descent into the valley and then it's flat all the way to the finish.

At the finish we got a nice bag and a medal. Having achieved silver last time and wanting to go for gold I haven't even looked at my bronze medal. Gold was 4hrs 30 or less, silver 5:11 and bronze 7hrs something.

This was not the crowning glory of my cycling life. I really didn't hear people chatting about their results and casually saying: "yeah I got gold..." However chatting with Nigel later helped. He got silver for his first DC, bronze the year after and then a few years of gold. He also said with the year we've had its amazing I made the start line. So reframe: on a day when I felt horrible on a bike, on a really tough route, I didn't give up! Next year, as Nigel said we'll smash it!

After riding through mist and rain I returned to Plymouth and a really nice sunny day! A few beers and fish & chips plus good company sorted me right out.

Happy Pedalling 

It REALLY is SUMMER!!!

Usual process, update on Lee followed by some cycling stuff!

Lee is feeling much better this week. The antibiotics have done the trick and her recovery is back on track. Don't be fooled though we still have a long way to go. She still needs her Nanna naps, gets out of breath easily and mostly feels tired! Twice this week I have had to help her up after a fall. This week Lee also missed her long covid yoga class because she overslept! However she also managed to go out with friends to bingo on Friday! People continue to visit and be very kind, I'm not sure I'll get the chance to buy her flowers for a few months yet!

On Monday I went back to coaching Cyclones after a 3 week break. I needed the break but it was also good to be back. The session was led by former Cyclone Charlie Stockham. He did a great job!

The Wednesday night time trials at Rockingham have switched to 20 miles for a few weeks and combined with other things it doesn't quite work for me! Lucky for me though KCC run a Thursday night TT. So I went there instead. Both rides are only a 20 minute spin from my house and on a beautiful evening I set off to sign on in Old. 

13 is our lucky number so I was delighted to get it for the race. It's traditional to wear 13 upside down...so I did. 3 of our Cyclones, plus other associated adults also took part.  Just like at Rocko it was nice to be amongst friends. The course itself is a 10.1 mile, out and back from Lamport to Rothwell and back. I'm still new to TT and had never tried this course before. I got to half way at 13 minutes and thought I was on for a good time. However I don't yet have the fitness to maintain that pace and faded on the way back to a 30.27. Pretty much the slowest on the night but not disappointing. It's just another target set to improve on!

I've done my two 5k runs this week and I can say my Friday run was very heavy legged after TT the night before!

On Saturday I met the Cyclasylum in Loddington for a 42 mile spin. Not everyone was there because some of the club were riding to Hunstanton and back in one day. I'm impressed by my cycling friends but as I've said before, I ticked off 200 miles in 2015 and have been thoroughly cured. I like to do at least one 100 mile ride a year but no further than that. So Steve, Andy, Neil, Mark, Ashley and Paul...chapeau! I hope the fish and chips were good!

The rest of us had a lovely ride on a stunning Summer day. We headed out towards Stafford via Kelmarsh, Naesby and Cold Ashby. The downhill section after Cold Ashby was particularly fun!

The banana 🍌 break took place outside Stanford Church, on the edge of Stanford Hall grounds. This 16th century mansion is described as the perfect "William and Mary," stately home! Of greatest note is that a Victorian aviation pioneer, Percy Pilcher  built gliders here. In fact Percy built a powered aircraft that he was due to test but before he got the chance he was killed in a glider crash. Had he been successful he would have beat the Wright brothers to recording the first powered flight. His invention has been tested since then and it's likely that it would have worked!!! That all feels fitting, as we later cycled past the glider club between Welford and Sibbertoft AND shortly after that the Red Arrows flew over!

In Welford I spotted this statue of Postman Pat. Apparently this is the 2020 version that replaced a previous wooden statue. I have no idea if there's a connection, just that the old statue was much loved and when it rotted away locals funded a replacement.

Before we knew it we headed up the hill to Harrington and I hoped we could get a pint in the Tolly but unfortunately we were too early. So I said my fairwells and headed home. We'd had some racing for signs and this was enough for me with Dartmoor Classic next weekend!

This morning I volunteered at junior Parkrun and my job was barcode scanning. It's always a fun job and as usual there's a lot of satisfaction from volunteering. 

It's looking like a big summer of sport. Test cricket is back, the football Euros have started, the Olympics is coming. Next up for cycling is the Tour de France! I can't wait!

Happy Pedalling 😊 

Stressy week with a good ending!

This will be a much shorter blog this week. I'll do a Lee update and then there's only a little bit of cycling to discuss. The reason for that will become apparent!

So the relief of Lee being home on Sunday was shortlived. On Monday she continued to feel rotten and spent Monday night to and fro to the toilet. Neither of us got a good night's sleep and on Tuesday morning I got one of my thankfully infrequent migraines. I think the surprise here is that I haven't had more of these. This bit isn't about me though...luckily my head recovered enough by Tuesday afternoon to be of use to Lee. The GP was not happy with KGH and we needed to get samples to the lab and pick up a prescription. It took until Friday for the infection to be understood and more antibiotics provided. Lee is starting to pick up and was able to meet with friends on Saturday night. This was especially nice because this was the third attempt to meet up, the other times postponed due to Lee being back in hospital. All in all a rough week but we appear to be recovering again.

Thanks to that migraine I didn't do much apart from a run on Friday. However on Saturday I got out with the Cyclasylum riders again. This week we headed east on a beautiful summer day.

First up was Geddington and then round the back of Boughton House, these silly geese were in the road. Once negotiated we headed down Brigstock bumps only to encounter a tractor...

This was also a day for roads we travel less as we worked round to Oundle.

I'm just going to let the pictures show you...we had a great time out on our bikes! Usual stuff, banter, chats, laughter!

I thought about extending to a 100km fondo ride but then decided today was not the day! I headed home, hot, tired and happy!

Sunday was junior parkrun duty again as this was my 25th time I qualify for a t-shirt!

Then this afternoon Sam and I headed to Franklin's Gardens for a covid safe Saints match. 

It was great to be back. Not quite our day today but a great match in a proper atmosphere! Better days are coming, suporting our heroes is evidence of that.

Happy Pedalling